Larry Quinn was the only one present in the combat class at this hour. The other students had gone to their other classes while he took advantage of the opportunity to train himself further.
His face was filled with smiles as he recalled the words of his homeroom teacher. Alex had complimented him in front of all the other students, and now Larry was more determined than ever to learn more.
He had been practicing a special move all this while and had nearly perfected it, but he still didn't know how effective it was. The reason? There was no one to test it on. Everyone in the Military Academy had awakened their energy core except him.
'God. Why me?'
Larry fell to his knees, his hands sliding down the brown stick he was holding. His heart was pounding so loudly it felt like it was being torn apart.
'Why was I born this way? Why am I different from the others? Why can't I awaken my Energy core?'
The questions were more directed at himself than at God. These questions never left his mind, and the more he tried to think, the more lost he became.
After months of pondering and searching for answers, he finally concluded that all of this was caused by his disability.
Larry had no idea what he looked like or what others looked like. He was born blind and recognized people mainly by voice and sometimes by smell. His disability had cost him a lot, and he regretted being born in this era. He felt useless and, at the same time, uneasy.
But it wasn't that Larry was a weakling. In terms of physical strength and hand-to-hand combat, Larry excelled, relying mostly on his hearing, which had never failed him.
He had focused so much on improving his hearing that he could sense even the slightest change in the air.
After spending more than three hours in the room, it was finally time for Larry to leave the combat class. With the support of his stick, he rose and began navigating his way out.
"I thought you were never going to come out." Larry heard a voice, which startled him for a moment before he regained his composure. He tightened his grip on his walking stick, deciding to ignore the speaker, and turned to leave, only to sense a presence right in front of him.
It was a familiar presence, one he had encountered not too long ago.
"David Crez," he mumbled, and David raised his gaze. Larry was quite taller than David, so the latter had no choice but to look up at him.
"You son of a bitch. You caused my misfortune," David cried out, his gaze fixed on Larry's face. If Larry could see, he probably would have noticed the murderous intent in David's eyes.
"I have no idea what you mean, and whatever Teacher Alex did to you has nothing to do with me," Larry replied, trying hard to maintain his composure. Without wasting any more time, he started walking forward, navigating with his stick.
David glanced at Peter, who nodded, and then turned towards Larry.
"You blind fool. You'll pay for my humiliation," David shouted as he charged towards Larry.
'Fool. He just gave himself away,' Peter shook his head, having already predicted the outcome of the clash.
Larry might be blind, but he had good acuity and was already aware of the attack coming his way.
Just as Peter had predicted, Larry dodged the punch that was aimed at his head. Immediately, a knee kick followed, but Larry countered it with his elbow and, without wasting time, used his brown stick to strike David on the left jaw, causing him to slam into the wall with a loud thud that attracted the other students.
Larry was shocked as his hands trembled after hearing the sound made by the wall. The stick had busted David's lip, and a trail of blood could be seen running down his chin.
"You're dead meat, Larry," David cried out, activating his Gaia core as he charged towards Larry with his fists launched forward. Larry was trying hard to fend off the attacks and seemed to be doing well. But with each attack, Larry was forced to step back. He had been focusing so much on David that he didn't notice a presence behind him.
Firm hands grabbed his shoulders, pinning him in place. He tried every means to move, but it was impossible. Then he felt a change in the air as a blow was coming straight to his chest.
He braced himself to receive the blow, but what he didn't know was that David had focused all his energy into his fists, making them as strong as rock.
At the last second, Larry was freed from the tight grip, but before he could make a move, the fist connected with his chest, picking him off the ground and throwing him into the air.
Larry's body was sent flying backward until he finally crashed to the floor, rolling before dropping with his chest against the ground.
Panic surged through David instantly. He had only acted out of anger; he didn't mean to hurt Larry that much, especially knowing that Larry had no ability to defend himself.
"That was a nice move, David. I always thought you were a loser," Zach said to him. He was the one who had grabbed Larry's shoulders, making it possible for the blow to hit him. "That blind loser needs to learn his place."
What he didn't realize was that the person he was referring to was right behind him. The moment he noticed David's expression, he realized something was up, but before he could turn, a fist connected with his face, causing him to stagger forward, followed by a straight kick to his shoulder, sending him out of the way.
Before David could even react, he saw a kick heading straight for him. He narrowly dodged the kick, and that was when he noticed the angry expression on Larry's face.
Everything Larry was doing at the moment was instinctive. He didn't care about defense as he launched a series of attacks that David found hard to keep up with. As David attempted to launch an uppercut, a firm hand grabbed His arm, and in the next moment, Zach slammed Larry hard onto the floor.
The crashing sound on the marble floor drew the attention of more students. One male student rushed to the scene, intending to help or stop the fight, but the moment he saw that it was Larry on the floor, he hissed and walked away almost immediately.
"Seems like not only we realized how useless you are," Zach said angrily as he grabbed Larry, lifting him high before flinging him towards Peter, who activated his own energy almost immediately.
"This is my payback, Quinn," Peter shouted as a ball of flame appeared in his palm, which he hurled toward Larry.
The fireball hit Larry hard, lifting him from the ground. While he was in the air, the ball pushed him backward toward Zach's direction as his loud screams filled the air, followed by a loud thud.
"You need to know your place here, Larry. An ordinary human is better than you. You're nothing but a useless, blind fool. You're a weakling who never belonged here in the first place," Peter said as he stood over Larry, who was lying on the floor groaning in pain, struggling to breathe, which seemed impossible.
'I'm not a weakling. I'm not a weakling,' Larry encouraged himself as he struggled to get on his feet. It was something surprising to both Peter and Zach. Even the rest of the students were shocked.
Peter was a Level 4 user whose flames did more harm than good. The flame was meant to paralyze the body, and by his calculations, Larry shouldn't be able to get up for the next three hours, especially after receiving a devastating punch from a Level 2 Gaia energy user and being beaten thoroughly by a Level 3 Gaia user.
But right now, Larry was standing there in all his glory with his hands clenched as he took a fighting stance against the trio.
"I'm not a weakling," he cried out, trying to make a move, but his whole body felt heavy, and his legs and hands were shaking.
At this point, Peter was frustrated. He couldn't believe what was happening, and Larry was making his attacks look weak.
Angrily, he conjured another fireball that wrapped around his fists, and with unseen speed, he launched it toward Larry, who noticed the sudden change in the atmosphere.
He tried to move, but his body seemed to be under some pressure and wasn't responding to him.
'I can't die this way. I still have a lot to do. I have to prove that I'm not a weakling,' he said to himself, gritting his teeth as he awaited the impact, which never came. He had no idea what was happening, and with the reaction Peter had shown, it made no sense that Peter had stopped the attack midway or hadn't unleashed it.
Larry knew for sure that he noticed the sudden change in the air, but who on Earth would have stopped Peter's attack? It wasn't that stopping Peter's attack was the big deal; the big deal was who had saved him from the hands of Peter and his minions.
'Oh no… what is she doing here?'